Abuse of Power in George Orwell’s Animal Farm Essay examples

Abuse of Power in George Orwell’s Animal Farm Essay examples

Essay Preview

Often times in a communist society, a leader’s use of language can lead to abuse of power. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the farm leaders, the pigs, use unknown language, invoke scare tactics, and create specific laws, thereby enabling them to control other animals, to suit their greedy desires, and to perform actions outside their realm of power. Because of the pigs’ use of broad language, implementation of scare tactics, and creation and manipulation of laws, they are able to get away with avoiding laws and convincing other animals into believing untrue stories and lies that are beneficial to the pigs.
The first way the pigs use language to abuse their power is by using extensive detail and by using terms and vocabulary foreign to most animals. An example of the pigs using unknown terms can be found when Squealer explains to the other animals about how hard the pigs need to work to keep the farm running. “There was, as Squealer was never tired of explaining, endless work in the supervision and organization of the farm. Much of this work was of a kind that the other animals were too ignorant to understand. For example, Squealer told them that the pigs had to expend enormous labours every day upon mysterious things called ‘files,’ ‘reports,’ ‘minutes,’ and ‘memoranda’…” (129). In this scene, the animals, exhausted, hungry, and overworked, are told about how the pigs work just as hard as they do. Although this is completely untrue, seeing that the pigs only occupy themselves in self-centered and self-beneficial engagements, the other animals believe it to be true because they do not know what files, reports, minutes, or memoranda are. Their ignorance leaves them unable to question Squealers story and they mistake the pigs’ true...

... middle of paper ...

...ll return. By cleverly inducing fear into the animals, the pigs are able to convince them to agree with and support anything they suggest.
The pigs in George Orwell’s Animal Farm use specific laws, use unknown vocabulary and excruciating detail, implement scare tactics, and create and manipulate law to successfully attain the other animal’s trust, acquire certain luxuries unavailable to most animal, and establish themselves as the dictators of a totalitarian-like society. Through using detail, unknown vocabulary, specific laws, and scare tactics, the pigs acquire the ability to drink alcohol, sleep on beds, eat and drink the milk and apples, destroy Snowball’s credibility, and establish a trust between themselves and the other animals. From Orwell’s Animal Farm, one realizes how leaders with absolute power use carefully manipulated language to abuse their power.

Need Writing Help?

- At some point in your life, you will be put into a difficult situation. A situation where you will be found stuck in the middle; contemplating on what’s “right” or “wrong”. You will begin questioning yourself as an individual. It is your choice to be wise and make a decision you won’t later regret. Once a decision has been made, there’s no going back. There is much controversy on the topic of animal abuse. Many individuals question if it’s morally right or wrong to kill an animal or even use them for scientific testing.... [tags: Burma, George Orwell]

- What is power. Power means the strength and the right given of controlling anyone else. However, when too much power is given to someone, dictatorship cannot be avoided. In the book “Animal Farm”, George Orwell used a lot of events happened on the farm to illustrate that how did the ‘animalism’ turn into “totalitarianism” and well defined the sentence “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”, which also reflects how the society was like at that time. Therefore, in order to find out the reason why George Orwell wrote the story, this essay will talk about how power is abused and the effect on other "comrades" by using several events and the examples of language features used in the story.... [tags: totalitarianism, power, abuse, dictatorship]

- Power has always been difficult to equally share. Humans have struggled for centuries to balance authority evenly and have created complicated systems to try to overcome the problem. The Russian Revolution is amongst many to have tried and failed to raise a fair government. George Orwell’s classic novel Animal Farm portrays this event in history into a smaller scale, making it easier to understand. Having so much power is not always a good thing. Animal Farm proves this to an almost scary extent where the characters are mainly animals, not people.... [tags: Animal Farm, George Orwell, The Animals, Novel]

- Eric Arthur Blair’s (pen name: George Orwell) 1945 novella, Animal Farm, ostensibly provides a satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism. Written during World War II, Orwell was inspired to reflect the events leading up to the infamous Stalin era due to the widespread influence in the media he witnessed during his involvement in the Revolution. Orwell successfully engrains societal concerns and disturbing political ideas of the Russian Revolution within Animal Farm byway of the development of characters and themes that represent fundamental figures and events of the time.... [tags: abuse, power, world war II]

- George Orwell’s Animal Farm is an allegoric fairy tale type novel that uses irony, satire, and allegory to portray the true identity of media censored Communist Russia. Because of the relationship between America and Communist Russia during WWII, Animal Farm was not originally received with warmth because it was thought of as harmful propaganda. But then, during the Cold War, when US-USSR relations soured, George Orwell’s novel was finally read. George Orwell, the pseudonym of Eric Blair, conceived the basis of Animal Farm during his tenure at Eden, a prestigious English boarding school.... [tags: Symbolism, George Orwell, Animal Farm,]

- Despite the United Kingdom’s alliance with the Soviet Union George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm despised Stalin; he felt that Stalin was an oppressive power in Russia, forcing his people through trials and tribulation that were completely unnecessary. Many of his constituents starved and faced exactly what he promised would not happen under his communist policy. George Orwell being a democratic socialist felt hostility towards Stalin’s greedy policy. Seeing its effect on his homeland, he was out raged and motivated to write the novel Animal Farm to properly criticize the Soviet Union.... [tags: Communism, Soviet Union, George Orwell]

- Animal Farm Book Report The name of the book is Animal Farm, which is written by George Orwell. This book is about a group of animals who dislike the way their being treated. The animals feel that they have had enough and with a motivating speech by their “leader” old major they fight against their human owners and defeat them. They then kick their owners off the farm and attempt to build a new life for themselves. They attempt to build a life opposite of the humans and even ban any animals besides the pigs (the smartest animals) from going inside the farm.... [tags: Animal Farm Essays]

- Animal Farm was written by George Orwell and published in 1946. This story is about the Manor Farm in England, around the time of the Russian revolution. The animals on this farm started their own revolution because they were so irritated with the way they were being treated. At the beginning of the story, the Old Major calls a meeting in the barn and speaks about Rebellion and Animalism. Shortly after that the Old Major died’s and then the rebellion starts to take place. Mr. Jones is like a bad guy to the Animals.... [tags: Animal Farm Essays]

- Animal Farm George Orwell's novel, Animal Farm, is a deceitfully simple story about a group of farm animals who, tired of toiling for the benefit of humans, rebel and create their own way of life only to find themselves, several years later, toiling for the benefit of one of their own kind, the pigs. Because of the simplicity of this novel, many people consider it to be a children's story. However, beyond it's lighthearted surface, it is truly a satirical attack against Stalinism. "It is also a lament for the fate of revolutions and the hopes contained in them." Adding to the complexity of the book, it also shows man's willingness to compromise the truth.... [tags: Animal Farm Essays]

- Animal Farm George Orwell 4-19-02 Book Review # Plot Summary George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a political satire of a totalitarian society ruled by a mighty dictatorship, in all probability a fable for the events surrounding the Russian Revolution of 1917. The animals of “Manor Farm” overthrow their human master after a long history of mistreatment. Led by the pigs, the farm animals continue to do their work, only with more pride, knowing that they are working for themselves, as opposed to working for humans.... [tags: Animal Farm Essays]